Newtown beats Wolcott to remain undefeated

Richard Gregory

Updated 11:36 pm, Friday, October 18, 2013

WOLCOTT -- Newtown High senior running back Cooper Gold said following Friday night's game against Wolcott that he wanted to enjoy every minute of his final season of high school football.

"I'm going to embrace it and enjoy it all," he said.

Chalk up Friday's game as one of many enjoyable moments in what is becoming a special season for the Nighthawks.

Gold ran the ball 20 times for 291 yards and three touchdowns as Newtown overpowered Wolcott 56-14 in a clash of South-West Conference and Naugatuck Valley League contenders.

Gold was quick to deflect the credit for his success to his offensive linemen -- there were plays where he was running through holes big enough for the team bus to drive through -- but he also broke quite a few tackles along the way. Newtown's starting offensive linemen were Pete Manfredonia, Markus Elken, Dom Scarangella, Kevin Conte and Josh Krapf.

"The line and the receivers blocked incredibly," he said. "They did a really great job. Everybody did their part.

"Our line works really hard and they get the job done every single week."

Senior quarterback Andrew Tarantino completed 18 passes for 289 yards and four touchdowns -- one each to Julian Dunn, Jared Pearson, Otto Kerler and Nick Lotrecchiano. Nick Lotrecchiano also ran for a score.

It was simply a dominant performance by the 6-0 Nighthawks, who scored on their first four drives and never took their foot off the gas pedal.

"When you're in 2nd-and-short every series, it's a little easier to call plays, and Cooper did that for us," Newtown coach Steve George said. "It really opens up the whole playbook. It was nice to see Cooper have a big night tonight."

And on the rare occasion when the Newtown offense didn't hit pay dirt, the defense took care of business. Two Wolcott drives in the first half stalled inside the Newtown 5-yard line. On the first of those two, Wolcott quarterback Vincent Gambino tried to run it in on fourth down from the 1 but was snowed under by the Nighthawk defense. On the second of those two drives, Dunn broke up passes in the end zone on second and fourth downs and Newtown took over at its own 5. If the Eagles had scored on both of those, or even one of them, it could've been a different ballgame.

Jack Lago had an interception and Dunn, Jaret DeVellis and Zach Robertson each recovered a fumble. Ben Mason broke up two passes in the end zone.

"They executed, they made plays. We turned the ball over, committed penalties, and they're a tough football team, one of the best in the state," said Wolcott coach Jason Pace. "Even when we thought we had a little life here and there, it just seemed like they came up big and shut us down."